Take Care of You: 2016

About two years ago around this time is when I started this blog. My first post was about what I learned in 2013 and how it affected me, which led to a very long, slightly dramatic, entry.. oops. Now it’s 2016 and we just wrapped up the New Year celebration. This entry is going to sort of have the same (cliché?) theme; what I learned from 2015. But I’m going to try to be more straightforward about it all, yeah?

2015 was a very interesting year. It was a short year. I feel like it flew by abnormally fast. Faster than a usual year goes by. However, a lot happened. One of the most important things being that I finally experienced Disney World and Universal Studios and recently have mentioned about six times this past week alone that I need to go back. They don’t lie whenever they say that it’s the happiest place on earth.

Aside from being interesting, 2015 was a year full of changes. Good and bad. I left one job only to stumble into one entirely too wonderful. I finished my last regular semester of my undergraduate career. I secured a wonderful internship that I will be in starting in just one short week. I lost a pet, my best little furry friend. I accomplished my long time goal of making dean’s list every semester in undergrad. I put together and completed my senior voice recital. For the better half of the year I was in, and recently got out of, a very difficult relationship. I lost sight of who I was. I realized I was sometimes better at messing things up than I was at fixing them. But in the midst of that, I fell in love with music all over again. I have begun to fall in love with God again. And finally, I am rediscovering myself, and I’ve begun to fall in love withlife all over again.

Stay rooted. That is what I’ve learned from this year. Stay rooted, keep your eyes and head focused, and never let anyone steal the light you offer to the world. There are a lot of people in the world that will try to kill your spirit and knock your crown off of your head. Do not let them. The only way to get through this world, to get through each and every day, is to stay true to yourself and your roots. I very easily got swept away in something that was incredibly difficult for me to figure out which was the best path to take. It became so easy to be focused on anything other than what was best for me. I became such a people pleaser over the past two years since my very first blog entry on here. Doing that led me to put my priority into everyone else and my priority no longer rested in myself, or in what was best for me. There are times to take care of others and their needs, but there are also many more necessary times to take care of yourself. My mom frequently tells me, “Take care of you.” Probably at least once a week. But it’s a reminder that I need daily. I think it’s a reminder we all could use daily. Write it on a sticky note and put it on the mirror, write it on every page in your planner, make it the background to your phone. Anything to help us remind ourselves that it is 100% okay to take care of yourself, and to do things for yourself.

Some may take this message as conceited, self-centered, self-absorbed maybe. But it isn’t. If we don’t take care of ourselves and our own needs and desires, no one else will. There is not one person that has a responsibility to our wellbeing besides ourselves. I truly believe that once I begin to take care of myself every single day, and stop living my life to please everyone around me, that is when I will truly be able to help others. Once I find happiness and joy in every aspect of my life that is when I will be able to truly offer everything I have to the world. My life will become fuller, and much more profitable for myself, and anyone else around me. So rather than resolutions for this year, I’ve made simple goals for myself. Goals that help me take care of myself and stay rooted in myself.

Be outside more.

Be more active.

Be intentional and accountable with words and actions.

Write three times a week.

Sing, play, and practice every chance possible.

Drink more tea.

Do not be afraid to ask for help whenever possible.

Be more honest about what it is I want.

Take every experience, good and bad, as one to learn and grow from.

Have fun, and enjoy every second possible of life.

If you’ve made resolutions already, good for you! Stick with them. If resolutions aren’t your thing, that’s cool too. They don’t have to be. However, make some goals. Most of mine don’t have measurements to them simply because I am going to be ridiculously busy with an internship, a job, and being 22. But these are still goals to refer back to whenever I may be slipping up, or loosening my roots. Telling people about my goals also creates accountability now for me to keep up with it. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again; People need other people. And while we shouldn’t live to please other people, it is important to realize that we all need help every now and then.

So maybe you disagree, maybe it doesn’t make sense to you at all. I may even be wrong about all of it, but it’s just my view on it.

I sat outside this morning while writing this, drinking tea infused with joy, and added a very important note to my planner every week in January. Happy Monday, everyone!